Our fascination and curiosity with Mars came to be 4,500 years ago, when the Assyrians first made reference to the Red Planet. The exhibition “Mars: The Conquest of a Dream” brings us a little closer to that fascination and to the challenges of future human colonization. The exhibition offers an overall picture of all the planet's perspectives – both from the scientific and from the cultural and historical points of view. Listen to what your voice would sound like and discover what your weight would be on Mars while putting your knowledge on the Red Planet to the test with images of Earth and Mars.

Through experiences grouped into five large blocks, you'll answer questions like, "Why does Mars spark so much interest?" Or, "What pieces of data define Mars and set it apart from the rest of our Solar System's planets?" You'll experience the planet from the perspectives of science and science fiction – its influence on the collective imagination and how it has been portrayed in culture. Lastly, you'll take a look at the different milestones of the space race to Mars, and you'll look to the future in terms of the planet's human conquest.

"Mars: The Conquest of a Dream” includes some pieces of great value due to their historical or documentary interest. Original books and astronomical instruments from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries belonging to Rome's Astronomic and Copernican Museum, such as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, by Nicolás Copérnico or Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler; a fragment of a Mars meteorite that fell on October 3, 1962 in Nigeria; original illustrations of “The War of the Worlds;” a replica of the first Galileo Galilei telescope, and two 3D-printed models that simulate possible living quarters on the Red Planet.

The exhibition has been co-produced alongside the Telefónica Foundation, with the cooperation of several institutions such as Spain's National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), which have provided advice and lent pieces.